[Nfbv-announce] FW: Michael Hingson to Serve as National Ambassador for Braille Literacy

[Fredric Schroeder]

  _____  

From: Freeh, Jessica [mailto:JFreeh at nfb.org] 
Sent: Monday, November 24, 2008 2:10 PM
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Sundling-Crawford; Steven Priddle; Terri Rupp; Tommy Craig
Subject: Michael Hingson to Serve as National Ambassador for Braille
Literacy


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

CONTACT:

Chris Danielsen

Public Relations Specialist

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314, extension 2330

(410) 262-1281 (Cell)

cdanielsen at nfb.org


Michael Hingson to Serve as National Ambassador for Braille Literacy


 

Baltimore, Maryland (November 24, 2008): The National Federation of the
Blind (NFB), the nation's leading advocate for Braille literacy, announced
today that Michael Hingson, World Trade Center survivor and internationally
acclaimed public speaker, will serve as a National Ambassador for Braille
literacy.  As an ambassador, Michael will help advance the NFB's Braille
Readers are Leaders campaign, a national initiative to promote the
importance of reading and writing Braille for blind children and adults.
The Braille Readers are Leaders campaign kicked off in July of 2008 with the
unveiling of the design of a commemorative coin to be minted in 2009 in
recognition of the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille
(1809-1852), the inventor of the reading and writing code for the blind that
bears his name.

 

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
"The National Federation of the Blind is pleased to have Michael Hingson as
part of this historic initiative to bring Braille literacy to all of the
blind children and adults in America who need it.  As a unique keynote and
inspirational speaker, as well as a user of Braille, Michael will certainly
be an enormous asset in spreading the importance of Braille literacy to the
masses.  There can be no doubt that the ability to read and write Braille
competently and efficiently is the key to education, employment, and success
for the blind.  Despite the undisputed value of Braille, however, only about
10 percent of blind children in the United States are currently learning it.
Society would never accept a 10 percent literacy rate among sighted
children; it should not accept such an outrageously low literacy rate among
the blind.  The Braille Readers are Leaders campaign, with the support of
influential Americans like Michael Hingson, will reverse the downward trend
in Braille literacy and ensure that equal opportunities in education and
employment are available to all of the nation's blind."

 

Michael Hingson said: "It is an honor to serve as a National Ambassador for
the Braille Readers are Leaders campaign.  Braille is the only viable means
for both reading and writing by blind persons and the only true alternative
to printed matter.  I would never have been able to learn to read and write,
much less be successful in the work place, if I hadn't learned to use
Braille.  As a public speaker and living proof of the power of Braille, I am
dedicated to helping the National Federation of the Blind to inspire
children and adults across the country to learn Braille."

 

For more information about the Braille Readers are Leaders campaign and the
Louis Braille commemorative coin, please visit www.braille.org
<http://www.braille.org/> .

 

 

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